


shopping mall

by arstronomy



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crack, Bromance, Fluff, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 06:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12624942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arstronomy/pseuds/arstronomy
Summary: "I thought this was supposed to be a shopping mall, not a Japanese supermarket that's run by a Taiwanese American."Seven dudes' lives go crazy the moment they meet each other at the local Mitsuwa store.





	shopping mall

**Author's Note:**

> heyo my fellow swaggers B-)  
> this is kinda sloppy and short but i swear they'll get longer once i get into the juicy stuff  
> hope you like it lol

Park Jinyoung is not excited to show up for his first day at work.

 

Maybe the spilled bucket of ice over at the unattended seafood section or the bottle of Kewpie mayonnaise laying on the floor with its contents spilt after having someone stepped on it are signs that he should just leave. If he went home now, he could prepare himself a nice, little dinner that would beat his college cuisine meals, otherwise known as cups of instant noodles. But Jinyoung is a hardworking person who wants to achieve the most he can independently, which — whether it's unfortunate or not is up to himself — means that he needs to show up to work on time and impress the manager. 

 

He finishes throwing on his uniform, consisting of a white t-shirt that proudly has the Mitsuwa logo etched into its right chest pocket and an old pair of jeans he hasn't worn since high school (he doesn't want to ruin any clothing that he actually likes to wear). After washing his hands thoroughly, just like how a certain poster hung on the wall of the staff room reminded him to, he searches for the manager's office. He isn't feeling to sure about his job already, though, because the place is absolutely empty.

The reason why Jinyoung decided to sign up for this seemingly mediocre part time job is because he squinted very, very carefully at the employees wanted flyer and noticed that it said Mitsuwa's original _bentos,_ or single-serving take-out meals, were given to all employees during lunch break. 

 

Now _that_ was what he considered to be worth sacrificing his precious time that he should spend studying for classes. 

 

Mitsuwa _bentos_ are godly things to the Korean guy. The only thing stopping him from eating those every day for lunch is the lack of money in his pockets and wallet. Sadly, since countless goods sold at Mitsuwa are imported from Japan, they're rather costly and not something a college student should spend all his money on. 

Jinyoung has to walk past a couple —not one, but a couple — of stuffed animals that are randomly lying on the floor of the narrow hallway, beginning to seriously question whether he should call it a day and zoom out of the building. He shakes his head, telling himself mentally that he needs to have courage and patience for whatever sort of... things await him during his shift. 

 

 _You know you need that money, big boy,_ he thinks as he licks his lips that lack a cupid's bow, halting right in front of the door labeled 'Tuan Yi-En.' He first knocks on the door then slowly pushes it open once a voice from inside the room squeaks, "Uh-huh!"

 

"Manager...?" Jinyoung gulps, hesitating with the sight of the red-headed man staring intensely at a white stuffed animal on his desk while holding a needle and thread. Very intimidating, Jinyoung can't help but think as he tries his best to stop his eyes from popping out of their sockets. The closer he looks at whatever his manager is doing, he realizes that he’s stitching up a tear in the stuffed animal’s (which seems to be a puppy) abdomen. He chooses not to inquire why he’s using red thread on a white plushie and instead bows. "I’m Park Jinyoung. This is my first day here."

"Oh, right. I forgot," the other replies, chuckling as he casually gets up from his aggressively blue chair and sighs, walking around his messy desk. Jinyoung thinks that the guy’s going to introduce himself and all that good stuff… but of course that isn’t what happens. 

He approaches the shelf that doesn’t seem to be even a meter tall and digs through an old cereal box that’s been cut in half. With something tiny in his hand, he returns to his desk while completely ignoring the shocked and appalled Jinyoung. He stitches whatever he grabbed from the shelf — turns out that it’s just a pebble-sized button — onto the toy, huffing a loud breath through his nostrils in satisfaction. Jinyoung scrunches his eyebrows, practically feeling that warm breath on his exposed arms. 

"Excuse me, I-" Jinyoung begins, only able to lift a finger before he’s interrupted. 

"Shh. I know." He holds the stuffed animal up and stares at it lovingly as though he’s a toddler, his pearly whites looking awfully sharp as he grins. "Good," he mutters to himself, wrapping his very manly arm around the poor thing and keeping it in a headlock. Its fluffy face gets stuffed into under his armpit as he stares into Jinyoung’s eyes for a good ten seconds before asking, "Who are you again?"

 

 _Breathe, Jinyoung, breathe. Remember what those anti-stress books taught you._

 

"My name is Park Jinyoung. Today is my first day working here. My shift is from 6:30 to 11." A bushy eyebrow is raised as he gazes back at the one who’s supposedly his manager, a part of him wishing that he isn’t going have to work under him (though he knows that’s unlikely). This is his manager, right? Why does he look basically the same age as he is, and why is his hair so unnaturally, unprofessionally red?

"Park Jinyoung, Park Jinyoung… Jinyoung… Oh! Here you are," he says in a voice sounding too happy for a person who has to work late into the night. From his drawer that he pulls out in a swift motion, he picks up a small name tag with the name ‘Park Jinyoung’ obviously handwritten on it. He hands it to Jinyoung, who stares at it in silence as he internally screams at the doodles of a friendly-looking octopus that’s also drawn besides his name. 

 

This young man with overwhelmingly red hair is known as Tuan Yi-En, or more commonly referred to as Mark Tuan. 

 

Just as Jinyoung suspects, he isn’t that far from his new manager’s age at all. There’s only a four year gap between the two, Mark being the oldest at the ripe age of 24, though Jinyoung would definitely argue that he doesn’t act his age. Which, still, is true, but he’s aware that he shouldn’t bring it up as a younger _and_ inferior person to him.

He may seem too young to handle the responsibility of managing an entire supermarket, but he’s actually quite the intelligent person. He made his way to his position by gaining the trust and approval from the owner of the market’s chain. College came and went for him a year earlier than the rest of those his age, but that’s also why some friends question why his job is as boring as being a manager. His answer is always: "Being in power? That feels nice."

Jinyoung thinks about the stuffed animal being crushed under the masculine powers of an armpit that may or may not be damp and gestures to the door. "Thank you. Would you mind, uh, showing me around the store so I know what I’m doing?"

"I would, but I got other employees that can do that for me, so…" Mark trails off his last couple of ears, pretending to pick his nose and flicking away some wonderful nose-gold. He flashes a playful grin, claps his hands twice and hands Jinyoung the stuffed animal. "One of your fellow employees is about your height, has brown hair and a mole under his eye. Give this to him when you see him, okay?"

"Wait, but-"

 

"No time to waste! I’m going to give you a tour of my lovely home," the manager explains, stepping past Jinyoung and curling his bony fingers over the bronze doorknob. His head is turned over his shoulder as the door squeaks open, which is partly the reason why he doesn’t notice a muscular man in soaking wet clothing standing in the doorway. 

 

"Mark," he says, wringing out his t-shirt with a not very pleasant expression. Jinyoung peeks over Mark’s body in order to see what’s going on and notices something on top of the mysterious wet man’s head. 

Pointing his hands towards his own tomato colored head, Mark squints his eyes at the person in front of him. That’s when Jinyoung realizes that both of them are at the same height and are rather short — he stands a good five or six centimeters above them. “You have, uh…” The hands continue to waver around his head, causing the only clueless person in the room to tilt his head, perplexed. Whatever Mark had referred to falls to the floor with a _plop_ that sounds like a mixture of plastic wrapping and a pastry. 

 

"Oh. It’s just melon bread."

 

Jackson Wang is the muscle man who had just picked up a fresh package of medium-sized melon bread from the now wet floor. 

 

He’s also a part time worker at the market who happens to have the same shift as Jinyoung does, though his views on punctuality and presentation is a tad bit different. He almost never arrives at work without being drenched in water, covered in grass or wrapped in at least three towels. He claims the reason why he’s like that is because his routine is to exercise before going to work, but that excuse obviously doesn’t make sense to most people. Mark Tuan, however, is one of the rare people who allow basically anything to happen without batting a single eyelash.

"Say," Mark pipes up, rubbing his hands together, "How about I have you introduce mister Jinyoung over here to this lovely store? I'll give you extra time to dry off before starting your shift today."

 

Jinyoung stands there awkwardly with his hands behind his back. He can't understand a word they're saying because they're speaking in Mandarin for some reason. 

 

"But I thought you wanted me to put up the canned... Never mind," replies Jackson with a short shake of his head, this time talking in English for another unknown reason. 

 

He assertively grabs Jinyoung's wrist and pulls him out of the room, storming to where all the magic happens. For someone shorter than the newbie, he's pretty strong and Jinyoung isn't able to loosen his arm from the solid grip. He's quite confused (considering that he doesn't understand a single word of Mandarin or English and the explanations were spoken in either of those two languages) but is glad that at least something is happening. 

Standing silently in that stuffy room crowded by shelves of buttons or whatever feels suffocating to Jinyoung, who only wants to get his job started and done with already. They make their way to the main area of the supermarket where only half the lights are on. 

When the two of them slow down as they walk, ignoring some spilled flour at the sauces aisle, Jinyoung clears his throat in order to get Jackson's attention, telling him, "I don't understand anything that's going on. Do you mind explaining at least _something_ to me?" He clutches the stuffed animal in his hand that isn't getting covered in water dropping from Jackson's body — no matter how strange of a request it is, Jinyoung doesn't want to defy his manager — and grumbles incoherent words of complaint under his breath. 

This isn't at all what he wants for five and a half hours every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. All he wants is to work in peace and maybe steal a pack of authentic Japanese gummies every once in awhile to fuel his internal anger and frustration. 

 

Wait, is that even legal?

 

"Well, _romantic boy,_ " Jackson begins (in Korean, thankfully) after finally, finally letting go of the guy's wrist (which is by now completely soaked by water that's probably mixed with tons of dead skin cells) and stopping in front of the fruit section — specifically, the bunches of spotted bananas, "there's not much I can tell you about this place. It kinda grows on you, you know... Even the old milk stain in that corner makes you feel nostalgic about something. It's just… _strange,_ you know?"

 

_What in the world is this guy talking about?_

 

"Okay, thanks," quickly responds Jinyoung, his 'thanks' sounding insincere. He wonders if it's the stuffed animal's fault that he had just been called romantic, or if it's actually something about his appearance or maybe attitude — which, in that case, he'd have to seriously consider taking lessons on how to become a different person. 

Jackson shoves two cardboard boxes stacked on each other to Jinyoung. He checks the labels and terrifying pictures of a sun with a ripe grandpa's face drawn on it while trying not to drop the boxes. They're quite heavy, he finds, and an overflowing ocean of tangerines threaten to spill from the very not-sealed containers. The plushie — that had to be relocated to under his armpit, otherwise he'd have only one free hand to use — falls to the shiny floor with an obnoxiously loud squeak.

 

The two men stare it quietly. 

 

"There's other boxes all over the place. Just put the fruits where you think they belong. Have fun!" Clasping his palms together, Jackson beams at Jinyoung innocently and turns on his heel in order to jog away from the fruit section. 

 

What a world Jinyoung lives in, where he gets paid to hold stuffed animals and carry boxes filled with tangerines in a building meant to refrigerate food (not humans) for roughly six hours. He inhales sharply and makes use of his biceps that he, surprisingly, has, walking over to where he _thinks_ the tangerines should belong, just like how Jackson instructed him. 

 

When he's in the middle of placing tangerines carefully on the section of the counter he believes should go in, he hears a high-pitched screaming in the near distance. He crouches behind the watermelon display, hoping the watermelons are large enough to hide him, and breathes slowly. 

Is the store under attack? Is it a robbery? Should he run outside and yodel for help? He nervously awaits whatever his fate is and most likely whoever is the source of the annoying screams. First, he notices the screaming becomes progressively louder as the seconds go by. Then he hears the footsteps, loud and heavy against the smooth floor, indicating that someone is running away for dear life (that's Jinyoung's interpretation, at the very least), which grow louder as well. He soon realizes there isn't one, but two pairs of feet are running across the supermarket — and are headed straight for the fruit section. 

 

He will never forget what he hears being screeched next.

 

_"He's got my blender! He's gonna kill me with my blender! Someone help me! I don't want to end like this — no, not like this! I don't want to die!"_


End file.
